A Sydney jewellery shop and its owner have been ordered to pay a record amount of general damages for sexual harassment, which included him slapping the bottom of a female employee and asking her on several occasions to start an intimate relationship.

Federal Court Justice Anna Katzmann awarded Fiona Taylor $268,233.64 in damages after finding she was sexually harassed by Simon Grew, owner of Grew & Co, and was victimised after filing a complaint to the Australian Human Rights Commission.